View Full Version : best color enhancing food for cichlid??
breaker_1113
07-20-2003, 4:28 PM
wats the best color enhancing food for cichlid in your opinion?
What kind of cichlid? I use Hikari Gold Cichlid pellets for my Malawi and Tanganyikan tanks. Shrimp is also good for enhancing reds and yellows. My Mbuna do fine eating the hikari, but I wouldnt recommend feeding it to tropheus.
Most fish will display their best colors if kept within their proper water parameters...the right temp...and a good and varied diet.m It helps to have a female around too. ;)
breaker_1113
07-20-2003, 5:33 PM
i have a small con and jack
i feed it hikari gold and bio gold and krill at times.
my ph seems to always be low(about 6 mabey lower but my ph kit doesnt measure lower than 6)
ive tried to uses proper ph 7 but that only raised it for a day or two and i have a major algea bloom that im still fighting.
ne other ways to raise ph??
There are multiple ways to raise ph, but that ph up stuff is crap. The algae is from all of the phosphates. Your ph is dangerously low and it sounds like you have some bioacidification going on if I was to hazard a guess. What is your water change regiment? When was the last time you cleaned your filter? How much do you feed and frequently? What is the ph out of your tap after sitting overnight? If your ph stays where it is there will be no food that will enhance the color of your fish.
breaker_1113
07-20-2003, 8:13 PM
hmm i do a 50% water change every 2 weeks and vacume gravel and clean my filter.
i feed my fish about twice a day just as much as they can eat in a couple of seconds. i have a jd and convict so they eat like horses.
ill get back to you on my ph but rite when it comes out of the tap it is 6.6 and ill check wat it is if i leave it out for a day.
my fish seem to be fine but yeah the ph is very low
I just realised you were the same person with green water in the other thread. 6.6 from the tap will rise as the carbonic acid gasses off over night. For your ph to drop there is something wrong. I do a forty percent water change every week. I think you need more water changes and less food. Trust me the fish won't starve. I am sure they eat like horses, all cichlids do. It tricks you into thinking they are hungry. But remember what goes in must come out!. I will bet you if for the next week you don't turn the light on, add fresh carbon to your filter, feed once a day and do a twenty five percent water change everyday your green water will be gone. Then do a weekly forty percent and still only feed once. Your ph will stabilize and your green water will be gone. Try it, its one week, you aparently have been dealing with this almost a year.
breaker_1113
07-20-2003, 8:23 PM
i was told that adding carbon to a cycled aquarium isnt very good but is that true?
Completely and totally false. Here's a little light reading for you.;) Go through it. It is great info and will answer all of your questions. Specifically look at carbon, green water and bioacidification. I think your problems will be solved soon!
skeptical aquarist (www.skepticalaquarist.com)
breaker_1113
07-20-2003, 8:41 PM
thnx alot
i hope it goes away
125gJoe
07-20-2003, 9:43 PM
Originally posted by breaker_1113
wats the best color enhancing food for cichlid in your opinion? I know for sure it's Tetra Color Bits!
dragonfish
07-21-2003, 12:45 AM
I highly recommend trying New Life Spectrum fish food. Its better than Hikari Cichlid Gold and contains 4 all-natural color enhancing ingredients, Hikari only has one. You can buy it online at www.cichlidtrios.com
Drake Titan
07-21-2003, 1:23 AM
I can't get my JD to eat pellets.....so I made the "beef heart" recipe.....he loves it!
his color is great too!
Originally posted by Drake Titan
I can't get my JD to eat pellets.....so I made the "beef heart" recipe.....he loves it!
his color is great too!
Can you give me the recipe? :) My JD dislikes the beef heart food I got from LFS. I wonder if he will eat what I made instead.
Dtman
07-21-2003, 10:23 AM
All the new life spectrum said was it was made from brine shrimp and seaweed from unpolluted environments. It doesnt even give a nutritional breakdown. It has a pretty lable. I'll stick with Hikari and Omega 1 as my staples.
scott
07-21-2003, 10:54 AM
Omega one and hikari are my staples as well. Omega one is the only food I have seen where fish is the number one ingredient. I also like the marineland formula 2 for a flake.
AikidoGuy
07-21-2003, 11:19 AM
spirulina, FD kril/plankton. raw shrimp.
Drake Titan
07-21-2003, 11:41 AM
beef heart recipe!
http://www.worldcichlids.com/diseases/Adamhith.html#Anchor-Ingredient-56874
it was funny this morning! he usually would just wait at the bottom of the tank and then see the food and tear it up! this morning he sees me open the lid...and he's waiting at the surface...as soon as I dropped it in....he thrashed it!...poor little guy must have been hungry!
:D
btw...i didn't use shrimp...just the chicken livers and beef hearts!
it makes alot and is cheap! the most expensive part is adding the pellets....I just used goldfish flakes! small $3 can!
peifc
07-21-2003, 12:13 PM
Thanks a lot, Drake Titan. I will try that recipe. Hopefully, my fish love them. They have started to become a bit picky regarding food. They have to have their Cichlid Stick and Tetra Flakes (containing mostly shrimp). Most of them will not even touch bloodworm, except for my severums.
breaker_1113
07-21-2003, 2:22 PM
yeah thnx alot for the recipe
do u think i can substitute raw salmon for the prawns??
Drake Titan
07-21-2003, 3:09 PM
Originally posted by breaker_1113
yeah thnx alot for the recipe
do u think i can substitute raw salmon for the prawns??
I wouldn't see why not!....its alot more fatty then shrimp, and also more expensive....but other then that I bet its ok.
BTW....I'm no expert, nore did I create that recipe
MASSMAN2
07-30-2003, 8:26 AM
In my opinion, I would say a varied diet consisting of Krill, bloodworms and Hikari Gold Pellets. This should enhance the color of all fish. I would also suggest frozen spinach, lettuce, algae, etc.
I always try to feed my fish what they would normally eat in the wild. So bloodworms, krill, and frozen spinach, lettuce, algae is what I feel all my fish and they have real good color.
latazyo
07-30-2003, 2:11 PM
are the pellets in the recipe cichlid pellets or high color pellets??
and do I want raw or cooked shrimp?
and I assume the chicken livers are raw
sorry for trivial questions...but I've never done this before
I never tried feeding my fish cook food. All my fishes eat raw shrimp, beef heart, and chicken livers. The only thing they eat cook is spinach. I soak the spinach in warm water, then cool it before I feed them.
If feeding your fish raw food, make sure that they are very fine. My fishes will not touch any shrimp that's too chunky.
AikidoGuy
07-30-2003, 5:01 PM
If you go over to the AquaMojo site I just posted a link to some really good homemade fish food recipes. They are from Juan Migal of the Cichlidroom Companion.
MASSMAN2
08-05-2003, 10:21 AM
I think the Hakari Gold is a little overrated as a color enhancer. I havent noticed any color changes in my cichlids from feeding that to them. I would say frozen Krill is a better color enhancer because of it being a natural food for the fish. Just keeping the water clean with water changes will keep your fish looking its best.